Stephanie seems to respond to tactile praise more than food rewards. Stephanie's favorite food item seems to be carrots as she will occasionally leave bananas, oranges and white potatoes behind. She also seems to enjoy walking backwards.

Cinda: 1972 - 2014

Sedgwick County Zoo is sad to announce that Cinda, African elephant, passed away the morning of November 5, 2014. Cinda, approximately 43 years old, has always been one of the most recognizable animals at the Zoo. Cinda has called the Zoo home since September 1972.

Over the last year, Cinda had begun to show a decline in health due to her age. The elephant care staff and veterinary team worked tirelessly to investigate and treat any new edema, ache or pain.

The cause of Cinda’s death is unknown at this time. Our veterinary team will be conducting a necropsy or animal autopsy. Tissue samples and other parts of her remains will be analyzed for scientific study. This will help us learn more about Cinda’s health.

Stephanie, the Zoo’s other African elephant, is doing well at this time. Stephanie will be monitored closely by the elephant care staff.

The keepers who cared for Cinda want to thank the Sedgwick County Zoo community for their support. Cinda touched many people’s lives through the numerous meet-and-greets and painting sessions that she participated in. She will be greatly missed.

The Sedgwick County Zoo will continue to work on raising funds for the construction of Elephants of the Zambezi River Valley habitat, set to open in May of 2016. There is approximately $900,000 left to raise in the public campaign.

Expert Elephant Care

The elephants at Sedgwick County Zoo have a high quality of life and are provided excellent nutrition, excercise, professional veterinary care and environmental enrichment. They are cared for by a dedicated team of elephant-care experts and board-certified veterinarians with more then 100 combined years of elephant care and management experience.

Stephanie and Cinda’s new home, the Elephants of the Zambezi River Valley exhibit, will be the third largest elephant exhibit in the country. Their new home will encompass a sprawling 5 acres of outdoors space, plus an 18,000 square foot indoor facility.

The new exhibit will feature four yards. This will give Stephanie, Cinda and their future elephant family plenty of options for exploring and wandering. The design of this exhibit will transport guest from just passively walking by the elephants to inserting them among the herd.

Sedgwick County Zoo is dedicated to the care of its elephants and the protection of wild elephants. As part of our conservation mission, we support the International Elephant Foundation. Over 90% of this foundation's money goes to support conservation, education, and research projects that help wild elephants and provide improvements for the elephants in human care.

An average of 96 elephants are killed each day in Africa. At this rate, African elephants face near extinction in just 10 short years. The reasons for their decline include poaching, inadequate protection, insufficient efforts to stop ivory trafficking and the huge demand for ivory around the world.

96 Elephants is a campaign created by the Wildlife Conservation Society. This campaign aims to bring together world citizens, partners, leaders and change makers to leverage their collective influence and resources to save African elephants from extinction.

If people are to care about preserving elephants and their habitat, they need to learn about and understand them. Zoos provide a powerful venue to make this happen. When people learn about elephants they discover that their actions do matter. Elephants need zoos. Zoo studies on elephant biology and behavior would be challenging and in some cases impossible, in the field. Working with populations in zoos has a positive effect on conservation, and the information gathered is relevant to helping and understanding wild populations.